Ineed both questions answered:
the old woman sounds like she is a find a metaphor that is being used.

old woman nature naturally has a bag of bones tucked away somewhere, a whole room full of bones! a scattering of hair and cartilage bits in the woods. a fox scat with hair and a tooth in it. a shell mounds a bone flake in a stream bank. a purring cat, crunching the mouse head first, eating on down toward the tail--the sweet old woman calmly gathering firewood in the moon . . don't be shocked, she's heating you some soup.